The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for storing in a reservoir wash water, which is used to wash developed photographic materials and more particularly to a method and apparatus for storing in a reservoir wash water, which makes it possible to prevent biological growth in a reservoir tank and to indicate that the reservoir tank is to be replenished with wash water.
Developing apparatus are usually grouped into two categories: one for photographic prints and the other for photographic films. The two categories differ from one another in the arrangement of their respective processing tanks. For example, in photographic paper developing apparatus, there is provided a developing tank, a bleaching and fixing tank, a plurality of wash water tanks connected with these tanks through pipes. Photographic papers are passed through the developing tank for development, through the bleaching and fixing tank for bleaching-fixing, and then through the wash water tanks, one after another, for washing. Following these processes, the photographic paper is dried and then cut by frame.
In the wash water tank, the wash water washes the bleach-fix solution from the photographic material, such as photographic prints or photographic film. The wash water is contaminated by the bleaching-fixing solution in proportion to the washed amount of photographic materials which have been washed. For this reason, a replenishing wash water tank is installed beside the wash water tank to supply fresh wash water to the wash water tank after every predetermined length of photographic material has passed through the wash water tank.
Presently, it is common in photo-shops to provide so called mini-lab systems for quick and easy development of photographic films and prints. For such a mini-lab system, it is desirable to avoid a pipe arrangement, thereby facilitating installation and maintenance. However, a problem associated with mini-lab systems having no pipe arrangement concerns saving the replenishing wash water as well as the bleach-fix solution. Saving the wash water results in the wash water remaining in the wash water tank and the replenishing wash water tank. As a result the wash water grows moldy and bacterial, thereby forming suspended particles which will stick to the photographic materials.